The Trauma and Burn Research Center is designed to pursue important unresolved problems that afflict victims of severe burns and multiple trauma. Protocols will be developed and tested that employ computer assisted logic. Oxygen consumption is measured continuously by an oxiconsumeter. This will be used as an index of total body oxygen utilization. This technique will also be employed to ascertain the mechanism of endotoxin hypooxy-generation in monkeys and man. The effects of steroids on membrane-oxygen interaction will be studied. A sensitive assay for alphafetoprotein will be employed to ascertain the rate of hepatic regeneration following injury. A technique for monitoring hepatic blood flow by quantitating wash out of xenon by fluorescent excitation will also be perfected. Mechanisms of stress ulcerogenesis will be studied, and techniques for the continuous neutralization of gastric acid assessed in randomized trials on critically ill patients and in experimental stress ulcer models.